


the phantom menace

by orphan_account



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Immortality, M/M, it's the anti yolo, well mc death as in this person just died but look they're alive again it, ylmt-you live multiple times
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-12
Updated: 2015-08-12
Packaged: 2018-04-14 07:07:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4555353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"He couldn't remember who the party was for, or how the night breeze felt as it caressed his cheek; he could only remember how his skin heated up and the room brightened the first time he saw his smile."</p>
            </blockquote>





	the phantom menace

Phil Lester appeared to be your average twenty-eight year old male, but he was far from it. He had walked this world for a millennium, and would walk it for another millennium before he was gone. He had seen one hundred million faces, could recall each and every one, but one in particular stood out the most.

His alabaster skin made Phil wonder is living forever was really worth it when you had no one to share it with.

...

The first time phil laid his eyes on the brunette beauty was was a party on a rooftop in venice in the 20's. He couldn't remember who the party was for, or how the night breeze felt as it caressed his cheek; he could only remember how his skin heated up and the room brightened the first time he smiled. The night ended in drunken kisses under starlight followed by wedding confessions and hopes to meet again in a different life.

And maybe Phil's heart was cut a little bit deeper with those words.

...

His eyes clouded over when he saw him in passing in the forties. There was graying hair and wrinkles, a golden wedding band and a smiling woman in his arm. But the look of confusion and vague recognition drove the stake through his heart. Phil raised his hand slightly to wave, but dropped it quickly.

It was the twenties version of a one night stand, and he was nothing more than a hook up to Dan howell, and that would never change.

...

In the fifties, Phil Lester moved out of central Europe for good, and found a cozy apartment in northern england. He heard news in the sixties of a certain Dan Howell dying, something about his wife killing him for an affair with a man.

Phil smiled faintly when he heard the news. And maybe that made him sick and twisted, but at least he wasn't a drunken mistake worth nothing at all.

...

Flash forward nearly sixty years later and Phil can barely remember the moonlight in venice or the just how pale Dan Howell was, his mind now consumed by tube fares and the art of disappearing. It was becoming harder and harder to fade every time as technology advanced, but he still managed.

And on a day in April while trying to decide where to move next, because his landlady was beginning to wonder how he looked so young even though she had known him for years, and as the cherry blossoms fell around him like snow, his breath caught in his lungs.

Because _oh my god_ , that boy should be six feet under, nothing but dust and bones.

...

"Dan," he whispered as the boy walked by. He jerked his head up, eyes wide and unsure.

"What?"

"Oh god, it is you." Phil breathed. "I thought you were dead.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Dan spat out. "Who the do you think you are?"

"Phil Lester." He took a breath. "We met in venice a few years ago..."

And maybe a 'few years ago' is far under the truth, but Phil doubted that saying 'oh we met 75 years ago in Italy.' would go over well.

"I'm sorry," Dan brushed back his fringe. "But I've never actually been to Italy. You must have me confused with someone else."

"Oh," Phil sighed dejectedly. "It must have been."

He turned around and began to walk away through the cherry blossom snow, only to be stopped as d\Dan grabbed his arm.

"I just moved here from Manchester and have no idea were anything is so I've been using Siri constantly... so I was wondering if maybe you could show me around sometime?"

Phil smiled. "Yeah, sure. No problem."

...

Dan and Phil sat outside a small cafe, munching on chocolate chip croissants. They had met a few hours previous outside of Dan's flat, which was coincidentally just down the street from phil's.

When Phil picked him up, Dan was dressed in black skinnies and and a pale button up covered in moths that made him look just so _amazing_ , and it took Phil's breath away, like how he looked all those years ago in Venice. Phil feels shockingly under dressed, with his mismatched socks peeking out from under his jeans and his owl sweater. But Dan's sunshine smile made everything so much better, from the moment he opened his flat door to the second he whipped a chocolate smear off of Phil's face.

And as Phil blushed, his cheeks heating up, Dan giggled and told him he was _'too adorable for his own good'_.

And out of the corner of his eye, Phil could see Dan staring at him like he knew who he was vaguely but couldn't place it.

And maybe, just maybe, that made Phil's heart flutter a little faster.

...

A few weeks had passed since the first coffee-and-croissant date, and many had followed since. Dan came over almost every weekend to watch horror movies and play video games (which he had yet to win a single one of).

Every time he came over, Phil had caught him staring, a puzzled look on his face. He would blush, or throw popcorn at Phil, and Phil would throw popcorn and a cheeky grin right back. It became routine and perfectly normal for Dan to show up randomly with a forbidden planet bag and some new obscure video game that wasn't in english. Phil would make popcorn or dig up a bag of only slightly stale crisps and they would play until the early hours of the morning where they would fall asleep on top of each other.

It was regular and made Phil smile, but he wanted more.

Because Dan may be the best he never had, but Phil was the best Dan would never remember.

...

Dan was twenty nine the first time. Phil and he were giggling and drunk in the back of a cab in west end of London, lips bruised from snogging on street corners. Phil had yet to explain to Dan about his immortality, blamed it on good genetics, because now it seems that he never would have to tell this version of Dan.

Because no one except for Phil could survive a car crash turned fire, certainly not an ancient cabbie, and certainly not Dan Howell.

...

Phil lived on his own for the next twenty years before spotting Dan in a club, and he smiled so fucking hard his face hurt for hours afterward, because the love of his life was alive again and even if he lost himself he wouldn't lose Dan.

For six years he was a certified stalker. He followed Dan some of the time, but more often or not he deposited money in Dan's account. It confused Dan at first, the money, but soon enough he was use to it and bought more skinny jeans than he could ever wear.

...

It was christmas morning and Dan was 31 when Phil told him a secret. It scared him at first, knowing that his husband would one day be alone and he couldn't stop it. Phil told him another secret which lightened his fear barely, just barely, but it something in a world full of nothing.

...

Phil had been alive for a millennium, and Dan had lived a million lives. Dan was constantly slipping through Phil's fingers, dying as humans do.

But Phil had been without Dan for a millennium; what was twenty five years' wait for the best years of his life?


End file.
